Phineas and Ferb's Fourth of July Pyrospectale
by Sophia Villo
Summary: What is the Fourth of July without fireworks? Phineas, Ferb, and their friends celebrate the day in the traditional fashion by designing the biggest, brightest, most spectacular show the Tri-state area has ever seen. Meanwhile, Candace and Stacy help Jenny with a rally in the park that creates fireworks of its own.
1. Pyrotechnics and Protests

July: a peaceful suburban backyard glistened in dew-covered early morning. The Flynn-Fletcher residence basked in the light of fresh-from-the-sun rays. Already a hot hazy day, a scant breeze of cool morning air fluttered the curtains of Candace Flynn's open window. The teenager, sleeping deeply, shifted slightly.

A loud "pop" echoed through the open window and Candace flew up from her bed. She landed back in a rumple of sheets, creating a girl shaped dent in the mattress. Through the ringing of her ears, a boy's faint voice said "That was good, but it needs more…fa-BOW!"

With a growl of irritation, the oldest of the Flynn-Fletcher siblings buried her head beneath a pile of pink paisley pillows.

 _Crack!_ "Still not quite it," the same voice said.

 _Sizzle!_

 _Ping!_

 _Squeak!_

 _Boing!_

 _Screech!_

With each sound, Candace buried herself deeper and deeper into her bed, until her sisterly restraint broke.

Throwing the covers off, she stormed to her gable window, her brothers' names just about to leave her lips when an enormous _BOOM!_ exploded from her back yard. A wave of sound washed over the entire tri-state area. Buildings swayed with the sonic output. Far downtown, the sound waves swept hats off of men walking the streets, and a hairy English sheep dog got a close shave haircut.

"Whoa!" Under the backyard tree, step-brothers Phineas and Ferb lay where the explosion of noise landed them, flat on their backsides and hair blown straight back from their heads. Phineas punched his hands in the air. "Now that's more like it!"

Inside, arms and legs flailed from the dormer ceiling, desperately trying to push a head out of the drywall. Somehow Candace managed to get her hands and knees into an upside-down kneeling position and gave an almighty shove. With a crumble of sheetrock, Candace fell to the window seat. She landed on her back, right eye twitching at the ever-present and inescapable fact that her brothers were the most impossible beings on the planet, and quite possibly the universe.

A steaming volcano of anger boiled from her toes up to her drywall-coated hair. Shaking her head to get the loose dust off, she let loose with a resounding "Phineas and Ferb!"

The high-pitched wall of sound uprooted trees and broke every window in the neighborhood. The rest of the ceiling crumbled and fell around Candace's head.

"Oh hi, Candace!" Phineas shouted, unnaturally loud even for him.

Ferb looked upside down from his backside and waved to where his sister hung her head out the window.

Candace looked from one brother to another, and then at the worst mess she had ever seen in her back yard. Every prior wild invention paled in comparison to the pieces of who-knew-what blown by two noise blasts across the yard. Papers of complex calculations flapped limply in the humid breeze; wires, pieces of metal, and drifts of leftovers littered the lawn. Most ominously, barrels of many colored powders spilled their contents onto the grass. It may not have been more materials than any other project, but whereas any other day it would have been organized neatly into the most useful order, today it looked like nothing so much as an invention landfill.

Seeing her little brothers blown amidst the rubble set Candace's heart skipping. Surely this time they'd gone too far, and one of their crazy stunts had finally hurt them like she'd feared every day since the first day of summer.

Then Ferb jumped up with the ease of an acrobat, gave a hand to Phineas, then dusted himself off.

Fury replaced worry when she saw that once again, her brothers thwarted all natural laws of science. "How do you manage to do these things?! You can't possibly defy every law of science and still come out ahead! Don't you realize what you put me through every day? What are you even doing? Is that gunpowder I smell?!"

The brothers watched as Candace waved her arms and shouted until she was blue in the face, not reacting except for an occasional blink and look of mild interest.

Candace threw up her hands in frustration. "Why has Mom not heard this?" she wondered aloud to herself. She stormed off in search of the erstwhile parent.

In the dawn's early light, Phineas contemplated the empty window. "I wonder if she knows it's only 6 a.m.?" he said in the same loud voice he had greeted Candace with.

Ferb tapped Phineas on the shoulder.

"Oh, right," yelled Phineas. An invisible helmet-head system 2.0 came off Phineas' head, complete with ear mufflers. "These new helmets are great. I didn't hear a thing!" He paused. "Huh. I hope whatever Candace was saying wasn't important."

Candace stormed down the hall. "Mom! Mom! Mooooooom!" The master bedroom door bowed under Candace's pounding. She continued to hammer until she looked like an avocado plastered, nightgown robed banshee.

A groggy voice from the other side of the door said "Candace, this clock had better be wrong and it's _not_ 6:06 in the morning!"

Candace stopped knocking and looked at the cuckoo clock in the hall, which did not read 6:06, but 6:02.

"Well?" Her mom asked.

Backing quietly away from the door, Candace said, "Oh, just…happy Fourth of July."

As she tiptoed downstairs towards the kitchen and the back door, Candace heard her mom say, "that couldn't have waited two more hours?" Candace decided that comment didn't need an answer.

Throwing open the sliding door to the back yard, Candace blinked into the bright sun. Everything from the colorful powders to the blueprints was gone, replaced by a tranquil early morning scene and Phineas and Ferb sitting placidly underneath their tree with another round of blueprints.

"W-w-what happened?" Candace stuttered. "Where did everything go? And why did Mom not hear anything?"

"That's the last of it, Phineas!" Girl-next-door Isabella led her troop of Fireside girls into the yard. Candace could just see an overflowing dumpster jutting above the fence.

"Thanks, Isabella," Phineas told her.

The troop saluted, broke into giggles, then left. Isabella turned back and said, "we'll be back later. We're taking this to the recycling center."

"Well, that explains the mess, but how was I the only one to hear the racket you were making?" Candace asked.

"Did you have your window open?" Phineas asked.

"Yeah, it's already like ninety degrees outside. But I'll bet they heard that fifty miles away! A window wouldn't have made a difference."

"Of course not! That's why we soundproofed the houses around the neighborhood this morning before we started testing. But it only works if everything's closed up. So you heard it, but Mom and Dad didn't 'cause their window was closed," Phineas said, in a tone that suggested he didn't understand why he had to explain such a simple thing to his older and wiser sister.

Loud noises, soundproofed houses, the lingering smell of gunpowder, and Candace still had to ask the obvious question that her brothers could not see. "You know, I get kind of tired of even having to ask, but what are you doing?"

"Oh, we're…" Phineas started excitedly.

"I mean, it's not like we go through the same routine every day, but I have to ask."

Candace stalked a circle around the tree and the boys.

"See, we're…"

"You think you'd just tell me after a while!" A shower of leaves fell on Candace from the branch her waving arms hit.

A large sheet of paper blocked her path. Ferb held up blueprints with complex calculations and diagrams with marked dimensions.

Candace took it and studied it, turned it upside-down, backwards, and folded it in on itself, flipping the creased flaps quickly back and forth. "I don't speak nerdeese," she scowled.

"It's Independence Day!" Phineas exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "And the best and most traditional way to celebrate is fireworks! We're designing our own display, with music and laser lights, and our own 'specially designed fireworks!"

Candace's jaw dropped. "You guys are making your own fireworks?"

"Well, we could just _buy_ the fireworks, but why get the same ol' fireworks everyone else has when you can make your own?!" Phineas said. Candace got the feeling that Phineas thought she couldn't comprehend such a simple concept.

A hundred different arguments fell onto each other as they fought for voice and jumbled into indignant splutters. "Light fireworks? When mom wakes up and finds out you're playing with fire…"

"Candace," Phineas interrupted with a reassuring laugh. "We aren't _lighting_ the fireworks! According to state regulations these," he motioned to the schematics, "are far more volatile than consumer fireworks. We don't have a license to set these off, but the Danville Fire Department does."

Unbridled vexation ricocheted from Candace's glare and off her brother's shield of innocent enthusiasm. So they weren't actually lighting them. They still blew up the yard and her eardrums. Yet with no evidence – the yard looking as clean as it did after dad mowed it yesterday – there was no point in disturbing her parents' sleep.

The pink terrycloth bow holding Candace's robe together slipped apart as a weight pulled one end. Parry laid on the trailing end of the tie.

"Oh, there you are, Perry," said Phineas. Perry chattered as Ferb pulled the platypus off of the robe.

Candace pulled the robe back together. "Well, until you come up with another mess, I'm going to get dressed. Stacy and I are helping Jenny with the protest in the park."  
"That's cool. What are you protesting?" asked Phineas

"I don't know." Candace shrugged dismissively, "Jenny kind of just talked us into it."

"She's good at that," said Phineas.

"Say, what do you wear to a protest?"

"Why don't you wear what you already wear? You know, red top, smart white skirt, red socks, white mary-janes? It's two thirds patriotic already; just add something blue."

Ferb pulled out a silky blue scarf.

"Rrrgh, you're hopeless," Candace cried. The sliding door shook as Candace threw it open. "Especially for someone who's had a hit in the fashion world. I still don't understand that one…" Her voice faded and disappeared into the house along with its owner.

"Hey Phineas," Isabella returned with Buford and Baljeet, neighborhood bully and nerd respectively. Isabella had met them on her way back from the recycling center. "What'cha doin' now?"

"I'm glad you asked," Phineas said. The sun slowly crept up from behind the back fence as he mounted the drafting board he had been working on. Addressing the assembled friends, he said, "I bet you're all wondering why I've called you here today." He paused for dramatic effect.

Buford answered, "We're here every day, dinnerbell! It's a standing, open-ended invitation!"

Phineas decided that Buford had a point and he deserved that answer to the rhetorical question. "Today is a special day here at the Flynn-Fletcher house. Today, our dad celebrates his first Independence Day as a naturalized American citizen!"

The small audience cheered, and Ferb waved an American flag.

"And, as the laws of this country state, any child of a naturalized citizen – insofar as he is under the age of sixteen and unmarried," Phineas added in an undertone, "is a citizen himself, making this day Ferb's first American 4th of July as well!"

The cheering redoubled. The Star-Spangled Banner solemnly cast its melody over the fresh morning, swelling from the sunlight and the peaceful neighborhood and the red, white, and blue bunting strung across front porches,

As the anthem gained power, so did Phineas' voice and stature. A pneumatic lift whined as it carried Phineas above the small crowd. "In honor of this momentous occasion and America's birthday, we are going to orchestrate the biggest, most awesome display of pyrotechnics ever!"

Never had the Flynn-Fletcher backyard rallied with such excitement. It was as if the neighborhood, nay, the entire tri-state area reverberated with the energetic excitement of the small band of friends.

Jumping from the lift, Phineas landed back on the drafting board. He lunged forward, pointing at each friend in turn. "Ok, team, let's split up. Buford, you'll be in charge of the raw materials and making them into the stars that will provide the color and sparkle. Isabella," Isabella snapped to attention, "you and the fireside girls pack the stars into shells with the bursting and lift charges."

Isabella saluted.

Phineas went on, "Baljeet will start wiring the mortars to our custom control panel, and Ferb and I will set up the launch site. Blueprints are on the left, safety gear is on the right. We have new sound-proof invisible helmet-heads, and fire-proof suits for everyone." Phineas tugged at his hand and the skin pulled away like an orange peel. Everyone recoiled with a unanimous "ew!" Laughing, Phineas showed them a glove that exactly conformed to his hand. "The suits are skin-tight, but completely breathable. They mold to your skin so you don't even know you're wearing it! Ferb and I have been wearing ours all morning."

Lined up on a clothing rack were full bodied suits, exactly replicating the shapes and outfits of the boys' usual helpers. On top, matching invisi-helmets sat, giving the illusion of nine limp doppelgangers.

Phineas quickly counted the suits, scratching his head in puzzlement. "Hey, where's Perry's suit?"

* * *

One stray shell rolled along the grass, bumping lightly into the backyard tree. Slowly it rolled backwards, teetering to a stop on a slight lump in the otherwise perfectly level ground. The lump depressed with a faint mechanical click. A hole opened, dropping the shell into the ground. It shot down a narrow opening, barely large enough to allow the ball to roll through. Friction rubbed the casing until it sparked and ignited the fuse, and a comet tail of sparks propelled the rocket towards the center of the earth.

The shell exploded in a wide burst of greens, with bright orange sparks in the center. From the heart of the fire, a menacing duck-billed, beaver-tailed secret agent sailed into a once pristine high-tech den, now scarred with black and with pieces of expensive-looking equipment radiating outwards from the center of the explosion.

Clutching a fedora to his head, Perry the Platypus landed in the control center chair. Lights flashed as hard drives whirred to life, brought out of hibernation as Perry manipulated levers and buttons.

He settled into his chair, waiting for the video conference to begin. Nothing happened. Mechanical snow filled the screen, hissing static the only sound in the room.

The screen jumped as Perry twiddled the levers again, but nothing changed. Perry scratched his head, puzzled. Cautiously, as if expecting something to explode, Perry pushed a big red button marked "Emergency".

The whole wall behind the screen fell forwards. The viewing screen broke a hole in the drywall, which fell with a crash that shook the foundation around the chair where Perry sat. The control board collapsed in a shower of sparks, scarring the floor with more black burn marks.

"Woo-whoo-hoo" Startled yells echoed though the residual cracks of falling drywall and sizzles of live electrical ends.

Perry uncurled himself from the standard tuck and cover protective position to survey the damage. Through the settling dust Major Monogram of OWCA stared awkwardly, frozen as one catches a deer in the headlights.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the wall!" Skinny arms and legs belonging to befreckled and bespectacled intern Carl attempted to draw Perry's attention away from his startled superior.

Being a mammal of few words, Perry said nothing but remained seated, awaiting his mission with an all-business air.

Carl felt quite foolish waving his arms like a windmill. He should have known that wouldn't work. His arms fell dejectedly. Major Monogram still stood locked in a position that suggested he had ducked from the downfall, with arms protecting his head and one leg in midair from an interrupted leap out of the way. His eyes locked on the non-existent barrier.

Silence settled with the remains; even the wreckage seemed to hold its breath to see who would move first.

One errant bit of drywall, clinging to its former home by one last wire fell with a disproportionate crash.

Carl jumped, and this seemed to revive the Major, who straightened resignedly. "He's not buying it, Carl," he said. "We'll just have to do this old-school." He tidied his uniform and smoothed his hair to a semi-presentable state. Addressing his agent, Monogram began, "Doof's activities have been…" he paused, scowling at the scene. "This isn't working for me. Carl, bring up Mission Briefing System 1.0"

A bulky apparatus wheeled into the newly opened room. It halted some four feet in front of the major, creaking like a rusty swing. Six feet tall it stood, with a bony structure of black metal supporting a large box with a screen. Below that, two smaller rectangles with buttons and lights stacked one on top of the other.

Perry watched Carl carry in a tripod and camera, then struggle with cords and cables until finally Major Monogram's close-up appeared on what Perry realized was a dusty old projection TV, and beneath that a VCR.

The old-school setup must have come from the deepest bowels of OWCA storage, which, on closer inspection, the newly discovered room appeared to be. Why it was behind Perry's lair underneath the Flynn-Fletcher house, Perry had no idea.

"Ah," Major Monogram sighed in relief. "That's better." The TV setup didn't manage to hide his torso, arms, or legs, which Perry could see as the Major stood behind the portable setup to speak to the camera. "As I was saying, Dr. D has been unusually active on social media as of late. You know, Myplace, Flitter – honestly, we're surprised he even knows how to use those; we suspect his daughter is helping him. That much stalking can't mean anything good – find out who he's contacting and why."

Perry saluted and the screen went to static.

As Agent P left, Monogram turned to his assistant and said, "well, back to it. That Star-Spangled leotard won't find itself."

* * *

"And after the apple pie scented fireworks, the acrobats will fly through the fireballs." From the edge of the Danville commercial access harbor, Phineas directed the helicopter to place two more mortars and a high wire connection. Standing beside, Ferb piloted the helicopter while a dozen marigold-clad Fireside Girls constructed trapeze scaffolding.

"Hey Phineas," Isabella broke away from her team. "Mayor Doofenschmirtz wants to know if you can arrange a finale for the parade and a special presentation at the festival in the park."

"Sure," said Phineas.

From above, a vaguely bird-shaped creature with a beaver-tail and a jet-pack flew over the construction, across downtown, then over the suburbs.

Glancing down, two familiar teen girls walked up to the front porch of a slightly out of place ranch house. Neatly trimmed lawns and precise edgings disappeared into a woodland scene. Birdfeeders and birdhouses stood elevated on poles or clung to trees, overflowing with seeds and nests. Mounds of flowerbeds, carefully cultivated to look like they were straight out of the wild, flowed through the trees and spilled onto the cobbled path.

Stacy rang the doorbell and Jenny, third of Candace's trio of gal-pals, hurried out the door. She carried two handfuls of painted cardboard signs and balanced a large binder in the crook of her arm. "Are you guys ready?" she asked as Candace took a handful of signs and Stacy grabbed the binder as it slipped from Jenny's arm.

"Thanks," Jenny said. "It's so great that you guys are coming along to help. This'll be fun!"

Striding ahead, Jenny missed the look of helpless "well, we did offer to help her," exchanged between Candace and Stacy.

Stacy sped up to a trot to catch up. "What exactly are we protesting?"

"It's not a protest, it's the "Save the Parks Rally," Jenny said. "Mayor Doofenschmirtz has started an initiative to protect the Tri-state areas endangered wildlife where birds and animals can live in safety and peace."

Candace swore she saw a halo hovering over Jenny's head. She certainly had an other-worldy look on her face as she imagined a world where all creatures lived in peace.

The girls talked animatedly as they walked the ten blocks to the park, about anything from boys to fashion to boys. Two blocks from Jenny's house, Candace spotted a familiar green-haired boy in purple pands carrying an armload of large firecrackers. She stopped in her tracks.

Stacy ran into her. Candace pointed down the street where Ferb just disappeared around the corner. "Stacy, did you see my brother?"

Stacy pushed her from behind, and Jenny pulled at her arm. "Not now, Candace," Jenny pulled her insistently. "We have to be set up before the festival gets into full swing!"

Candace didn't have a chance to object. Jenny and Stacy practically drug her the rest of the way to the park.

Everyone seemed to be out playing in the park in the perfect holiday setting; Pet owners played with their dogs and some picnickers merrily unpacked barbeques and charcoal, blankets and baskets.

Danville City Park spread out and down from a low, flat hill towards the west side, falling to open grassy areas shaded by strategically placed trees. On top of the hill, a barrier of trees blocked the view to the north, and on the far south side, a rush filled pond sparkled in the mid day light.

Jenny, Stacy, and Candace surveyed the layout, choosing a sunny spot on top of the hill near the edge and the pond. Opposite them on the other end of the hill, six figures of vastly different sizes and all wearing lab coats had started setting up shop. The two formed an undefined oval of emptiness, outside of which revelers spilled like a gentle fountain down the slight pitch.

"Now, you can hand out pamphlets," Jenny handed a stack of glossy papers to Stacy, "and you can use your incredibly impressive diaphragm to project our message across the park." Jenny handed Candace a megaphone.

"Hey!" Candace shouted in that very voice. Jenny smiled pointedly and handed her a sign.

Over the next few minutes, a few more people arrived, then a few more, until a decent gathering of a dozen milled around setting up tables and tents.

The organization on the other side grew in numbers as well.

"Looks like we've got competition," Stacy said, looking pointedly across the hill.

Two of the pharmacists – for as they were all wearing lab coats, what else could they be - fastened a banner between poles laid on the ground for easy access. The words were not visible, neither was anything that revealed what they supported.

Jenny watched for a moment, then turned back cheerfully to her balloon inflation. "There's plenty of room here. All that matters is that we're saving the world together. Or at least, we're saving the Tri-State Area's natural parks."

The pharmacists - or whatever they were - pulled and pushed their banner poles into place. Jenny, Stacy, and Candace watched as a light breeze caught the banner, revealing the words "NO MORE NATURE."

"Uh-oh," Stacy said, watching her passionate activist friend and her zealous friend's reactions.

"Oh, they are going down!" Candace and Jenny said together, faces full of grit and determination.

"This is not going to end well," said Stacy.


	2. A Hitch in the Plan

"Looks like we've got competition," Aloyse Everhart Elizabeth Otto Wolfgang Hypatia Gunther Galen Gary Cooper von Roddenstein, also known as Rodney, watched Camp Nature with narrow eyes.

Heinz Doofenschmirtz, wearing a rally tee-shirt under his lab coat, swiped Rodney in the back of the head with his "DOWN WITH NATURE" sign. "Don't be so delusional, Rod. They're just kids."

"If you're not going to call me by my full name," Aloyse Everheart Elizabeth - well, you get the idea – said, turning to Doofenschmirtz and rubbing his head, "then at least have the decency to not shorten it even further."

"It's not my fault your name is longer than all get out." Doofenschmirtz retorted, in a cheery mood despite his nefarious intentions.

Perry watched the banter from underneath the shrubbery that provided the backdrop for L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.'s booth, assessing the situation. Under normal circumstances, he would have burst into the fray, perhaps landing on the table so tastefully decorated with recruitment propaganda and various used laboratory equipment.

Except that this was a holiday, and dozens of civilians littered the park, picnic baskets and sports equipment ready for a dawn 'til dusk party. What's more, opposite his nemesis a familiar redheaded teen arranged streamers around their Protect Nature booth. And while Perry had no particular qualms about doing battle while a crowd watched, if Candace should spot him his identity would be compromised and he would have to find another family. Left with two bad options, Perry did neither, choosing to monitor Doofenschmirtz's next moves.

The scientists lapsed into silence, avoiding eye contact with each other. How Doofenschmirtz, the obvious ringleader of this event, got the members of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. to work together to further his scheme, no one may ever know. Even the other evil array of members kept casting sidelong glances at Doofenschmirtz, all trying to figure out why someone put him in charge.

Dr. D didn't notice the dirty looks. He kept looking suddenly at the bushes and throwing sharp glances behind him, jumping and twitching like a neurotic cricket.

"Expecting someone, Heinz?" Rodney taunted. Doofenschmirtz often bragged about his nemesis, hiding his own insecurities in the fact that OWCA assigned their top agent to him.

Doofenschmirtz wheeled around defensively. "No! I just...haven't monologued about my scheme yet. I can't get to the implementation phase of my scheme until the monologue phase is done." He wrung his hands restlessly. Already his scheme for Tri-State area domination hit a roadblock, all because some platypuses didn't have the proper regard for other people's schedules. The monologue impulse threatened to send him into a jabbering fit if he didn't let it out soon. He saw his associates watching him suspiciously. "Eh, you guys'll do," he said.

Every last scientist groaned, because while all of them enjoyed a good expository speech, no one enjoyed listening to one.

"You've already told us about it on the social network," Rodney almost whined.

"As you know," began Doofenschmirtz, "my brother the mayor is trying to pass a law that will protect the Tri-state area's wildlife nature preserves. Ugh, he's so self-righteous and upstanding, it makes me sick! He's destroying the Doofenschmirtz evil name! All that real-estate wasted on useless beauty! My first plan was to stop the town council from approving the law, but then I had to get like five thousand people to sign a petition, and submit it to a subcommittee for approval, and I'm like 'how does anything get done in a beurocracy?' and it occurred to me that instead of fighting the system, I should use its own weaknesses against it, and thereby, in a stroke of pure irony, take over the tri-state area!"

Rodney scowled. "Yes, yes, we know. You built a filibustinator to suspend the city's decision."

Dr. Bloodpudding rear-ended Heinz, who lost his balance and fell into the banner. He picked himself up and dusted himself off.

Doofenschmirtz frowned back at Rodney. "Really? You steal my monologue? What kind of evil genius does that?"

"What I don't understand," Rodney continued, "is why we're here at the park protesting the "Protect Nature" rally. Are the squirrels and pigeons suddenly going to vote?" he chuckled at his inane joke.

"It's a statement!" Doofenschmirtz passed around a handful of signs to the gathered men. "And a smokescreen. While we're here creating chaos, the filibustinator here," and he motioned to the elaborately decorated booth standing next to the "No More Nature" table, "will go to work to stall the creation of the new city park and we will buy the land and build our own temple of decay and crime! Two birds with one stone!" Doofenschmirtz launched into a maniacal laugh, attracting no fewer than ten families' attention.

One little boy stopped his family in the middle of a walk, staring at the spectacle with wide eyes. "Can we stop for the circus, daddy?" he asked eagerly. His father took one look at the spectacle and wordlessly pulled his son along without further ado.

"Way to go, Doofy," Rodney hit him in the back of the head with his sign. "Now anyone who was listening will know exactly what your plan is."

"And who's going to stop me?" Heinz stroked his machine-child fondly, reveling in the impregnability of his scheme. "And this baby doesn't come with a self-destruct button, or an unstable mix of chemicals, or a two-meter wide exhaust port that would allow a direct hit to blow it up!"" Heinz faced down Rodney with hands on hips and arrogance written across his angular face. "Speaking of nicknames…"

"Oh, you're going back to that now?"

"Yes, yes I am!"

In the depth of the bushes, Perry the Platypus contemplated his options, watching the Protect Nature tables and a certain in-the-know friend of Candace.

"Ok, so we'll have ten mortars lined up along the Freight Emergency Harbor, and three dozen more ready along the skyline. Isabella, how are those shells coming along?" Phineas commanded the gang of kids from the top of a nearby building. Using his clipboard and a pen, he guided the helicopter carrying a load of launching materials to the "X" marked on the roof. Ferb stood next to him with the remote control to the chopper.

Isabella touched her in-ear com unit, activating a line to Phineas. "We're a little short on powder and coloring chemicals," she said, also busy directing her troop in an assembly line of packing.

"I'm on it!" Phineas said cheerfully. "Ferb, take that launch pad over about six inches. Ok, let it down slowly. Perfect! Baljeet," he said over the com, "have the speakers been wired to the control board?"

A pile of wires shifted from where they lay draped across a three tiered, ten yard long control board. Baljeet appeared through the tangle to solder a wire to another connector. "I am afraid the process is taking more time than anticipated. This is a very complicated system. I am still not sure why we needed to build this from scratch, when there are many perfectly acceptable models on the market."

Phineas paused in mid-direction, considering the question. The thought had never really occurred to him to buy anything pre-made. The blueprints from the ice-cream sundae machine were pre-made, but they had fabricated the invention themselves. "Well, I guess we wanted to make this all our own endeavor," he said thoughtfully. "You know, our very own."

The hovering helicopter spluttered and dropped a foot. Ferb looked down at the readout on the controller. A short ret bar hovered dangerously near "empty". He began to bring the chopper down.

"Uh, Ferb, what are you doing?" Phineas asked.

Ferb showed him the control array and the dropping fuel gauge.

"Oh," Phineas said. "Well, we'll just get some more. Along with gunpowder and chemicals."

His cell phone rang. "Talk to me, Carl. Uh huh…yeah…I see." His smile dropped a few millimeters. "We'll work with that. Nah, it's ok," he said as he ended the call.

Ferb watched the exchange. His expression, unfathomable by most, asked a question he knew his brother would understand.

"The OWCA acrobats had to re-choreograph their show, and the rigging will have to be rebuilt," said Phineas. The phone rang again. "Hello? Stan, my man! What's shakin'?" Phineas paused. "Oh, right. Send them over when you can." He hung up. "The eagles have been backordered." He snapped at this the last straw. "Aw, c'mon! How hard can coordinating a city-wide celebration packed full of events? It's not like we haven't built a roller coaster, travelled around the world in one day, or carved Candace's face into a mountain!"

"I believe we'll visit Mt. Rushmore later this summer." Ferb corrected.

Radio static filled the silence following Ferb's statement.

"Boy, talk about breaking the fourth wall," Buford muttered.

"Wait a minute," said Isabella. "Candace and Jeremy have been together since the longest day of summer, right? In June. So how come on her birthday, which isn't until later in July, they were obviously not dating?"

"Aw man!" Buford rolled his eyes and growled. "now you wanna talk about continuance issues? Why don't we just count the number of days of summer we've had, divide by the number of inventions, subtract the number of days travelling to Africa, England, and a road trip, and run the whole gamut?"

"Guys, can we focus here?" Phineas brought the conversation back to the present. "We have some serious work to do. The parade is five minutes behind, which means the fly-by is early, the farmer's market is overrun by turkeys in stovepipe hats, and Mayor Doofenschmirtz is wrestling the pink gorilla. Oh, and there's a war going on at Danville City Park."

A piece of rigging crashed to the ground, narrowly missing the boys. "Y'know Ferb, we may have bitten off more than we can chew," Phineas had to admit.

Ferb laid an encouraging hand on his brother and best friend's shoulder.

"What we need," Phineas said, pensively rubbing his chin, "is..."

Three fire trucks whizzed by, followed by the parade running at full-tilt towards the town park.

"..to go where the action is! That way we'll be on site for any more disaster." Bounding back from disappointment remarkably quickly, Phineas jumped on his bike. "Grab the maps and the pickles Ferb, we're moving to the park!"

"Save our parks! Save our parks!"

"Down with nature! Down with nature!"

The two chants vied for attention, the proclaimers of each trying to outdo their rivals across the way.

Jenny led her people from atop a box, a megaphone raised above the crowd. "Save our parks! Nature is a gift that we all must protect! Beauty and wildlife forever!" she shouted passionately.

Candace waved her sign in challenge of the anti-nature's camp. Her comrades-in-arms' voices rang through her ears, blocking everything but the thought of busting the anti-nature-ist's front lines. Next to her, Stacy looked ready to mow down any competition with her picket sign.

Onlookers, supposed to be new recruits, stayed far away from the center waiting to see what would happen.

The tension grew to ferocious levels, threatening the imminent degradation of the demonstrations into an all-out Battle of the Booths.

Things disintegrated faster than a sandcastle at high tide. One minute hostilities limited themselves to mild name calling, next, neon water balloons sailed through the air fast and thick. If you ask the witnesses of the battle today, no one can give a positive account of who fired that first missile, or how everyone found themselves armed with hundreds of water bombs.

Perry watched from his new hiding place in some reeds along the small pond, behind Camp Nature's lines. Things were progressing exactly as he had hoped. It was, in fact, he who hid the balloons strategically and thrown the first shot.

There he kept a careful eye on the water fight, waiting for the moment when a mindless pet could avoid the melee of tramping feet and reach the one person he could ask to help him. One among the preservationists' lines knew his secret and could help save the Tri-State Area.

Just as the suburban warriors refilled their ammunition and turned back to take aim and fire, Perry saw his chance. One fighter rushed to the refill station later than the rest, and Perry threw a balloon at her feet.

Stacy cried out and dropped her armload in shock. Cold water oozed around her toes, turning the grass into a soft sponge. Arming herself quickly from the bucket of balloons, she scanned the bushes for the attacker, arm back in throwing position ready to fire.

A familiar chatter brought Stacy's gaze to the low-growing cattails that edged the pond

"Perry!" Stacy glanced around to see if anyone was watching the strange interaction. As expected, everyone else had eyes on the melee, either dodging, aiming, or cheering.

Quickly kneeling, Stacy hid herself in the reeds. Soft mud squished around her knees and turned the hem of her dress a greenish brown. Once, not so very long ago, Stacy witnessed Perry battling Doofenschmirtz in her very own living room. Normally a breach of security at that level meant relocation for an agent. But as Stacy pointed out, she wasn't a member of Perry's host family and the relocation clause couldn't apply. And so Stacy knew what her best friend didn't – Perry battled evil.

Perry had his hat on, a sign Stacy knew meant that he was "on-duty", so to speak. Pointing to the rather cleverly disguised "inator"-booth, Perry chattered again, trusting his primitive sign language would get his point across.

Following the direction of his hand – or paw, she couldn't decide what to call them – Stacy squinted through the chaos, then looked back at Perry. "You're pointing at…a puddle. What does that mean?"

Perry shook his head, pointing with more emphasis a little higher and miming throwing something.

Once again, Stacy traced the line of Perry's limb. "You want me to throw that piñata?" she asked, taking it that Perry meant the paper-mâché squirrel hanging in the tree above Love Muffin's base.

Perry shook his head, again making a throwing motion and adjusting his finger to where he hoped Stacy would follow it from her height to the right place.

"You want me to throw that picnic basket? No? That little kid? Why would I throw a kid?"

Perry's arms ached from emphasizing his meaning that Stacy should hit Doofenschmirtz's -inator with water to short the machine out.

Stacy kept guessing. "Throw a fit. Throw the towel in. Throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Done with the abstract charades, Perry picked up a water balloon, placed it in Stacy's hands, climbed up to her shoulder, and pointed again, making sure his arm was aligned with her line of vision.

Stacy had a sudden surge of understanding. "Oh, you want me to throw the water balloon at their booth? But why there? What would that do?"

Perry acted out a laser beam, pretended to be a festival booth, curled himself into a water balloon shape, and played all the parts of the city council.

Against all odds, Stacy made nods of understanding, "Oh!" she exclaimed, saying all in a hurry, "Dr. Doofenschmirtz made a filibustinator and disguised it as their booth, then came down here to distract everyone so he can use it to take over City Hall and the tri-state area! Why didn't you just say so before?"

Perry rolled his eyes.


	3. The Battle of Danville Hill

The crowded festival wound like a maze through booths of puppets, jewelry, quilts, and watermelon. Deliciously spicy scents of barbecue mixed with sticky cotton candy air. Buford grabbed food from every vendor as the kids weaved their way through the park.

"Hi mom!" Phineas waved to his mom, passing by the pie booth where Linda Flynn-Fletcher arranged a fresh batch of sales items on a brightly colored table.

"Hi boys," Linda said, not coming out from under the gingham covered booth where she rummaged for extra plates, missing the parade of heavy machine laden wagons passing by her booth.

"How's the pie sale going?" Phineas asked. He paused to grab the box of spoons which his mom handed over the booth blindly, still underneath the tablecloth searching for utensils.

She crawled out from under the booth just as a wave of people walked in between her line of sight and Ferb driving a backhoe. "I can't believe how many people want pies today!" The crowd passed, revealing Buford and Baljeet pulling a tiny wagon disproportionately towering with the launch array. Linda turned aside without noticing to hand a customer a slice of cherry rhubarb, then turned quickly to scoop ice cream onto a little girl's lemon pretzel slice. "It's been busier than an eighties revival concert selling leg warmers," she said. Isabella and the Fireside Girls passed with wagons full of rockets as Linda ducked to grab another pie.

"That's great, mom! Ferb and I'll be right across the park if you need us!" Phineas picked up a rope and pulled the trapeze setup that had been sitting just out of mom's sight, dragging it past the booth as a mob of hungry festival-goers surged to the stand.

"Oh hi boys!" Lawrence Fletcher handed each of his sons a little American flag as they passed by the civic awareness booth.

"Hi dad! We're going to set up the entertainment for tonight!" Phineas said.

Ferb saluted sharply as he passed.

"Right-o boys. If you see your sister, tell her she should get some pie before it's all gone!"

"Will do, dad!" Phineas called over his shoulder, swallowed by the crowd as he hurried off to the project site.

Duck. Throw. Dodge. Reload. Jenny handed a balloon to Candace and took one for herself. Candace threw the balloon, hitting a Labcoat.

"Nice throw, Candy!" Jenny shouted. She herself just missed her target, the slight man with the wild red hair.

"Stacy! You're on fire!"

Throw after throw Stacy mowed down assailants with deadly accuracy. Every balloon she threw hit a Labcoat. Stacy would have been proud of herself if she were aiming for them, rather than at the Filibustinator.

Across the battlefield, on the other side, Doofenschmirtz and Rodney had taken cover behind the counter. Amid a fresh barrage of bombing, the anti-nature lines broke and ran for cover behind the counter as well.

"Who would have guessed that a bunch of high-school hippies and politically aware citizens would have such awesome firepower?" Doof shouted above the melee.

"What now, Doofenschmirtz?" Dr. Diminutive shouted. He took a neon pink shot to the ear and fell behind a propped up piece of plywood being used for cover.

Doofenschmirtz had no clue. Between the ferocity of Camp Nature's offense and the poorly designed fortress of defense on Camp Squalor's side, things looked grim. He thought back to all the successful battle campaigns he knew of. It took less than ten seconds to go through them all; useless, every one of them.

With the eyes of every evil scientist on him, Heinz saw his imminent failure and humiliation at the hands of tree-hugging activists. LOVEMUFFIN wouldn't just excommunicate him, they'd install a Hall of Shame and name the building "The Heinz Doofenschmirtz Memoriam".

He needed victory. He needed it so badly that all remaining sense left him as the fire of battle madness struck. "Chaaaaarge!" he cried and rushed the front lines of Camp Nature. The move surprised the scientists so much that they followed Heinz wholeheartedly. His decisiveness seemed so in-charge that no one thought to question the potential risk of the attack.

Camp Nature's lines broke at Camp Squalor's offensive. Balloons fell thick and fast among the defenders, exploding in waves of icy water. The evil scientists pressed forward, occupying the center and splitting the activists' numbers. Panic filled Camp Nature's ranks.

Jenny and Candace bravely stood their ground on the front line, throwing as many balloons between the two of them as LOVEMUFFIN threw all together. Candace's breath came in gasps. She saw a Labcoat force his way between her and her ammo refill. Her next balloon hit him square in the jaw, but didn't move him. Candace threw even harder, desperate to get the enemy away from her supplies.

LOVEMUFFIN pushed forward forcing Jenny and Candace to step back. Jenny reached down for another balloon and met only wet grass. She chanced a look down and realized that her and Candace's water balloon supply had just run dry. "Stacy!" she yelled over her shoulder. "We need more ammo!"

Stacy crawled under the line of fire. Her dress stuck to her skin, plastered in muddy green grass stains and her bow hung loose to one side. "We're almost out," she said, handing each a few balloons from a mesh bag.

Jenny and Candace looked at each other and nodded. Candace let out a ferocious war cry and she and Jenny rallied their troops for one final offensive on Camp Squalor.

Ferb circled the wagons in an open area on the outskirts of the festival area, at the base of the hill.

The howl of a banshee cut a swath though the circle of equipment and kids figuratively and literally. Isabella picked herself up from being knocked over by the force of the sound. "What is going on up there? Say, can you see?" She asked Grechen. "It sounds like a war!"

"Huh," Phineas said. "I hope that doesn't interfere with the show." He shook out a large roll of blueprints and laid them on the grass. "Here's where the new and improved acrobatic stage will be, on top of the highest point in Danville Park." He pointed to the hill. "Let's get to it gang, we only have about half-an-hour to get everything ready."

In a short few minutes high wires and fall nets grew out of the jungle of parts scattered about. They cast long shadows as the sun sank into a haze of late afternoon warmth. A city skyline it appeared, with skinny skyscrapers and thin bridges.

Phineas finalized phase four of the fireworks display. "Now all we have to do is set this up at the highest point of the park so everyone can see the show." The tractors started pulling the equipment up the hill on which the chaos of battle raged. Opposite the main park the hill rose slightly, providing the perfect pitch to place the show.

Ferb led the parade of show sets up the hill, followed closely by Phineas; behind him their friends followed warily, watching the mêlée.

The brothers marched into the fray boldly. "Scuse me, pardon me, oneside there," Phineas said as they wove their way through stunned fighters. They cut a path through the crowd, who paused long enough to stare at the odd procession. The Fireside Girls brought up the rear; as soon as they passed, the fighting redoubled.

Candace, Stacy, and Jenny found themselves surrounded on all sides by Labcoats, grinning evilly and readying their balloons to fire.

"Well girls," Candace gulped, "it's been fun knowing ya'."

"This isn't the end I had imagined. I always figured we'd graduate high school, go to different colleges, and find new friends," Stacy said.

Jenny held her head proudly, daring each scientist to be the first to throw at three unarmed teenage girls. A shimmering movement caught her eye, hovering in the sky just above Doofenschmirtz's head. The shapes felt familiar to her, like the voice of a friend not heard from in years. A wild hope sprung up in her heart; Candace and Stacy felt it too.

"The eagles are coming, the eagles are coming!" Jenny shouted.

Out of the sinking sun, wheeling and diving, dark shapes soared towards the fray.

Rodney gasped. "What in the name of Dr. Frankenstein…?"

Screeches filled the air. The flying figures were the missing eagles, distorted in shape by the men and women riding them. Acrobats in leotards jumped from the back of the birds, tumbling into the heart of the battlefield. LOVEMUFFIN scattered, leaving their balloons behind.

Major Monogram landed a perfect backwards triple pike dismount. In a red, white, and blue leotard he looked like Captain America if the Captain aged several decades and wore a spangled leotard.

"Team A, left flank! Team B on the right! Monty, with me up the center!" Monogram grabbed an armful of abandoned balloons. "Carl! Get that trapeze over here pronto!"

The tired nature defenders cheered and rejoined the fray with renewed spirit. Perry and his agent cohorts kept the balloon boxes filled, and Stacy relayed them to fighters running low.

Something flew low overhead and Candace ducked instinctively. Acrobats flipped and swung on the trapeze. Some caught hold of the scientists and tossed them from one swing to another, but most simply plowed into anyone wearing long white coats.

Carl swung from one acrobat's hands to another, thoroughly enjoying the action. He really felt he was getting the hang of this. The crowd cheered when he pulled the labcoat over Dr. Doofenschmirtz's head as he executed a backwards split one-and-a-half flip. Monty caught him by his ankles and Carl threw Doof into a group of Labcoats.

A wild energy gripped Carl, fueled by the cheering crowd. He swung forwards with exuberance, reaching for the next catcher's hands far too early.

Timing is everything in acrobatics; one mistimed swing can mean mistakes on both sides. "Carl, what are you doing?!" Monty cried a moment before Carl slipped from his hands.

Missing the catcher's hands by at least a foot, Carl crashed on top of the bar, sandwiching the catcher's knees between a narrow metal bar and a slender but fully grown intern.

"Oof!" said Monogram as the weight squished every cubic millimeter of air out of him.

Carl flailed his legs, vainly trying to maneuver his way off the bar and back into position. He pulled himself to a stand on the bar just in time to see a Zundelini underswing a split second before it collided with him. Fear of his life gripped his hands to the wires, as two new performers struggled to keep hold of the lifelines.

The trapeze lost all direction and swung around the battle grounds, everything it came in contact with clinging to it like lint to a ball of tape.

Against all odds, the acrobat wrecking ball missed the filibustinator not once, but three times.

Each pass scattered assailants like birds flying from an oncoming car. Some flew in the shortest direction away from the danger, while others, such as the villainous evildoers, wildly flew this way and that, but mostly directly in the wrong path and getting run over by the very thing they tried to dodge.

Jenny leapt out of the way in the nick of time, pulling Candace to the ground alongside her just as the people projectile whistled overhead.

The crane groaned and the cable strained. Sturdy thought it was, it couldn't hold the weight of several dozen people.

A vicious twang, a heart-stopping change in g-forces, and the mass sailed in an arch towards a busily working group of kids.

Ferb noticed the shadow, a sphere rapidly growing over the fuse ignition he was just finishing wiring. He turned to see the mass falling as if in slow motion.

Phineas welded the final panel onto the control box. He stood back to admire his work – a fine example of the latest and greatest innovations in pyrotechnology.

Ferb's hands landed on Phineas' shoulders and turned him abruptly one-hundred and eighty degrees. A large web of people spun headlong towards the staging area.

His eyes widened, reflecting the size of the growing ball. He turned and ran, shouting back, "abandon ship! Fall back! Retreat! Retreat!"

Isabella, Baljeet, Buford and the Fireside girls turned in unison towards the shadow now covering the construction zone.

It took less than a nanosecond to register before they ran screaming in all directions.

The trapeze juggernaut landed right where the kids abandoned their tools only moments before. Mortars fell one-by-one like dominos, ending right on the large array of buttons that sparked the lighting sequence. Fireworks took off everywhere, somehow miraculously missing the people now rolling to a stop, firing instead more or less willy-nilly straight to the battle ground and the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. frontlines.

The grass squelched as Heinz and Rodney picked themselves up from the spongy ground.

"I can't believe it. I'm alive!" Doof shouted triumphantly. "Now there's nothing to stop me from using the Filibustinator to take over th-aauugh!"

The first firework whizzed by, buzzing Doof's hair. The second narrowly missed Rodney. The third snagged the Down with Nature banner and lit it on fire.

What remained of the protester's lines panicked, fleeing the grounds while fireworks exploded everywhere.

Doof bravely stood by his machine. Every time he aimed it, another rocket startled him and knocked the inator off-course.

Somehow, none of the fireworks managed to actually hit the inator. Persistently Doof struggled with his machine, evermore convinced of his invincibility by pure luck.

Perry bravely dodged into the midst of the melee, determined to grab a mortar and aim it to hit the inator.

It was debatable whether the chaos would make him more or less conspicuous, but it was a chance he had to take. Dodging, ducking, weaving; no one noticed – or at least regarded – a platypus in a fedora, worrying instead about the explosions.

Perry spied it, the biggest firework of them all. Twice as big as three Perrys put together, with a dozen small auxiliary fireworks around it.

Perry prepared to make a dash from the pond rushes to the mortar.

"Oh, there you are, Perry!" Phineas called to his quadrupedal, mindless pet. Perry chattered in response, looking for all the world like a regular, hatless pet. The rocket took off in a hailstorm of sparks before Perry could reach it, directly towards the inator.

Doof shouted and ran for cover. At the last possible second, one little firecracker sideswiped the larger one, saving the inator in the nick of time. The firework crashed into the pond.

"What an unbelievable stroke of luck!" Doof cackled madly. "Now nothing can stop…"

The firework exploded. A spectacular geyser of water and sparks leapt a hundred feet in the air. Like a tidal wave it crested and rolled right over the filibustinator. The machine gave off one violent round of its own fireworks, and went up in acrid smoke.

Rodney walked up to Doofenschmirtz, smirking wickedly from ear to ear. "Impervious to everything – except water"

Doof stood there indignantly, dripping with water. "Figures. Curse you, Protect Nature rally hippies!'

If anyone in the water war had managed to remain dry, the tsunami of pond water took care of that. It also washed away all remnants of the show.

"Wow!" Phineas sprang up out of the new little pond the wave left behind. "That was the best fireworks spectacular ever!"

The wave subsided, leaving a wash of extremely soggy people in its wake. Those lucky few who avoided total saturation of the battle did not find themselves that way now. Those who had been on the front lines and considered themselves the brave heroes of the war and therefore the wettest, now realized that they hadn't been nearly as wet as they thought they were.

Stacy, Jenny, and Candace, commanders of the proud Protect Nature army, the bravest of the brave and the wettest of the wet, lay wriggling on the ground like so much wet fish, trying to sit and stand upright.

"Oh hi, Candace!" Phineas waved to his sister. "It looks like Candace had a good time today."

Ferb nodded.

Candace's eye twitched, soaking in the aftermath of Phineas and Ferb's spectacular finale.

She poised herself for her best brother busting banshee yell. As she inhaled, a great cheer went up through the ranks of Camp Nature. Candace looked – the hideous lines of LOVEMUFFIN had been washed away, leaving only clean grass and the smell of slightly electrocuted evil scientist.

Jenny smiled a most triumphant smile. Grabbing a sign washed up by the wave, she held it high, the banner of a victorious people.

In a fine alto voice, she began to sing.

And where is that band

Who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war

And the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out

Their foul footsteps' pollution

No refuge could save

The hireling and slave

From the terror of flight

Or the gloom of the grave

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave

O're the land of the free

And the home of the brave.

Stacy joined her, then after a hesitant glance back at her brothers, Candace did too.

With their signs in hand, the three friends led the triumphant army down the hill singing glorious harmony.

At the edge of the festival ground they met their families, along with the rest of Danville. All sat on chairs or blankets, watching the sun set and waiting for just enough nightfall to start what everyone waited for all day.

"Hey kids!" Linda beckoned them in with a wave of her spatula. Delicious smells of hamburgers and cherry pies and potato salads wafted from the congregated families.

Vivian Garcia-Shapiro brought homemade mazza tamales, Mrs. Vanstomm supplied German potato salad. Baljeet's mom made curried jello salad. Mrs. Johnson brought Wisconsin cheese curds. From Jenny's family came a large bowl of completely vegan baked beans, and the Hiranos brought California rolls.

And of course, Linda had the leftover pie – at least, the little that was left after the success of the sale, plus the ones she held back for dinner, and Lawrence had several ramekins of rhubarb crème brulee.

"Looks like you guys had a busy day," she said, noting the wet clothes and sunburned faces.

Eight voices began at once.

"You wouldn't believe what happened!"

"There were these evil pharmacists…"

"…and water balloons, and a giant tidal wave…"

"we designed some great fireworks!"

"Phineas and Ferb blew up the pond!" Candace finished last, her statement cut across the sudden silence.

"Wait, what?! You made those fireworks?!" pointing to the hill where the firefighters would soon set to work.

"Nah, we designed our own," Phineas said.

"Aww, you kids have such great imaginations," said Linda.

By which she implied that she thought they made it up; Phineas and Ferb inferred that their mom was impressed by their creative use of both the day and dangerously volatile chemicals, and Candace knew that once again she lost the busting battle.

"Hey, Candy," Jenny heaped jello salad onto her plate, "nice going out there."

"I could not believe when you nailed that guy with the slingshot," Stacy laughed. "He must have sailed ten feet before he stopped." She plopped down onto the grass.

Candace sat beside her. "Where did the acrobats come from, though?"

"And why did they know how to fight so well?" Stacy asked.

Jenny scooted next to Stacy. "Does it matter? As long as they're on our side."

Twilight's last gleaming danced through the tree branches. Peaceful camaraderie settled over the blanketed picnic, and as the last piece of pie passed around, the first firework lit the sky with red and green fire.

Choruses of "oohs" and "ahhs" followed every explosion. Indeed, there were so many showy rockets the exclamation of delight went on the whole show.

Candace sat on an old cotton quilt, soft with wear. She leaned back on Jeremy, while Jenny and Stacy sprawled comfortably on her left, taking most of the blanket. On her right, her brother and their friends fought an imaginary battle to the soundtrack of booms.

"Will you knock it off?" Candace finally snapped. "You're distracting from the show!"

Phineas stopped in mid fire and smiled broadly. "We're just re-creating the battle of Danville Hill! Whadda ya' think?"

The rockets' red glare lit the scene with a flash as bright as day.

"The battle of…what?"

"Danville Hill! You remember - today, the water balloons…. it'll go down in Tri-State history!"

Jenny rolled from her stomach to her side, propped on her elbow to look at Phineas. "You really think so?" she asked.

"Well, yeah! It's already all over the internet."

"After all, the internet is the gauge by which fame is measured," said Ferb.

"Cool," Jenny leaned back to watch the fireworks.

Phineas and Ferb and their friends went back to the battle. This time, Candace didn't mind the commotion; in fact, she found it endearing and more than a little flattering. Somehow, what she and her friends did today mattered, and would matter to others for years, maybe forever.

"Best Independence Day ever," she sighed happily.

A water balloon burst on her head. The boys were literally re-creating the battle, ammunition and all.

"Phineas!"


End file.
